EnerOcean, advancing cutting-edge technologies to reduce costs in offshore renewable energy structures
01 July 2024
Why did you join the MAREWIND project and what’s your role?
ENEROCEAN joined the MAREWIND project because it is crucial for us to be involved in projects that address key topics to enhance the competitiveness of renewable offshore energies. Thanks to the MAREWIND project, EnerOcean takes part in the development and testing of cutting-edge technologies in materials durability and maintenance, which contribute to the decrease of the O&M and CAPEX costs of renewable energies offshore structures, such as our W2Power floating offshore wind platform.
In the MAREWIND project we act as “final user”, contributing our experience and perspective throughout its duration. More precisely, we lead several sea testing campaigns of novel antifouling and anticorrosion coatings, putting our experience on sea testing campaigns.
Could you elaborate on your involvement in the demonstration of the technologies developed in the project?
During the first part of the project, we performed sea testing campaigns on coupon and mid-scale samples in the testing sites PLOCAN and TECNALIA. This included flat samples but also some dog-bone like samples (for fatigue analysis of the anticorrosion coatings) as well as part of real components such as mooring lines and cables.
At this stage we are performing large-scale demonstration of the antifouling and anticorrosion coatings by applying them on the W2Power floating structure that was subsequently deployed at sea. It is worth mentioning that this prototype was the first floating wind prototype deployed in the open sea in Spain and it is currently one the few functional floating wind prototypes in Europe.
How do you see the future of the MAREWIND project?
We believe that the MAREWIND project can have a great impact both on the offshore and wind industry. From our point of view, the future of MAREWIND project is highly dependent on the success of the products that have been developed and tested within the project. With respect to the antifouling and anticorrosion coatings, the project has shown its great performance and potential, however, sometimes the offshore industry is reluctant to changes, so the first barrier is the entrance and subsequent penetration into this market. To overcome this, it is crucial for end-users to be confident that our products have undergone rigorous real-world testing, received certification from a well-known third party, and feature a straightforward, standardized application process on large structures.
